[Magdalen] Enjoying a colleague's accent

[Zephonites at aol.com]

Roger
 
Maddy (who is Swiss) went to the Swiss German border and a new Swiss border 
 guard asked her a question. She looked at him and said "Wie  bitte".   He 
repeated it and she had to get the German border  guard to translate between 
two Swiss!!
 
The Swiss border guard came form Valais which is a notoriously difficult  
accent to understand.
 
Blessings
Martin
 
 
In a message dated 19/06/2015 13:16:20 GMT Summer Time,  
roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com writes:

The  Glasgow accent is notorious, certainly in its broader forms.  I have  
heard that even Glaswegians can have difficulty with it at  times.
Roger



On Wednesday, 17 June 2015,  18:02, H Angus <hangus at ctcn.net> wrote:


I  remember many years ago, my first trip to Scotland to visit my Scottish  
grandfather's relatives, I spent the first night in Glasgow. I took a bus  
downtown, and was close to tears of frustration when a bus conductor came  
around making incomprehensible sounds. I deduced he wanted money, and I held  
out all the change I had, but he kept making those sounds. Finally an 
English  person took pity on me and translated: he wanted to know where I was 
going so  he would know how much to charge me. I got out a city map and 
pointed, still  holding out the change, and he took what he needed, with smiles all 
 around.

Welcome to my (sort of) native land, indeed.

Up in the  Highlands, around Inverness, I had no problem with the accents, 
nor they with  mine.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cantor03--- via Magdalen"  <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Cc:  Cantor03 at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:52:37 PM
Subject: Re:  [Magdalen] Enjoying a colleague's accent

In a message dated 6/17/2015  9:21:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
scottknitter at gmail.com  writes:

I'm  currently working with a group that includes a  colleague with an
accent I  originally thought was Scottish, but  quickly it became
obvious it's a  northern English one. I'm thinking  Geordie? He's  from
Chester-le-Street.>>>>>

The  accents of the north of England can be strong and difficult for
a  non-native.  I can recall staying in a bed-and-breakfast in New   Castle
upon Tyne,  We were assigned tables for breakfast, and  the  couple
at our table and on honeymoon were nearly  unintelligible.  There  were
a lot of smiles and nodding of heads  that week from both sides.

I gather this was Geordie, and it's supposed  to be infused with a
lot of Scandinavian words.  I can recall the  local couple  referring to
their "hjem", which is exactly the same  word for "home" in Norwegian.
The paternal ancestral home was "Nordhjem"  which is literally  "North 
Home." 
When the immigration officials  got through with it, however, it  became
"Northam".


David  Strang who finds it much more fun to decipher regional accents   
where
English is spoken as a native language, than dealing with  English,  
overlain
with an accent, as a second  language.